Russian-American economist Wassily Leontief from Harvard University, gave the Martin H. Crego Lecture, entitled "To Grow Or Not to Grow." Leontief was awarded the 1973 Nobel Prize in economics for his use of input-output tables in the development of “input-output analysis.”

The Crego lecture, part of the Crego Endowment, established in 1956 by Jean Crego ’32, in honor of her father, sponsored an annual lecture in the general field of economics, under the auspices of the economics department.